Sharing cage ?

[olorin19]

Guro is a 15 month female NR due to extremely limited use of her right forelimb. She has a spiffy new 9' L x 6' W x 7.5'H cage that takes up most of my office / squirrel room. (At this point, probably squirrel room / office). Next project is to join this up through the back window to an outdoor cage.

Anyways, I also have Kate and Sun (yep, rewatching Lost), sisters now 3 months old. They have been living adjacent to Guro since they were 1 month old. Their cages are about 1' apart.

My challenge is that with Guro's new palace, I do not have room to have a really large cage for them, and I am considering my various options.

So here is my question:

Is putting all three in the same cage an option? Or is this just a bad idea.

Does anyone have any experience with anything like this?

Guro can be fairly territorial with her cage - not keen on me going in there if I need to fix something. Despite not using her right forelimb to climb or otherwise move, she is quite agile. Would she attack them? Would they eventually gang up on her?

Any comments and in particular experiences are welcome, thanks!

[Charley Chuckles]

Usually they like their own digs if that's what they are use to. I do know many have put more than one together, I'm guessing best way is to have them in same area but seperated to get use to each other.
If they eventually seem to get along see how they do in open space. I'd suggest stand and watch and have a blanket ready to throw over in case a fight breaks out🤷

[olorin19]

Almost four years ago, I was overwintering siblings Arya and Iggy, with my sun porch being their play area when out of their cage. A previous release Mookie (2.5 years) was a fighter, and twice that winter I brought him on to the sun porch (which is unheated) for antibiotics then recovery, about 16 days each time. The sun porch is only about 10' x 11', but Mookie and the two kids managed to share the space without any issues when they were out for their play time. They would have been between 8-8 months old during this time. Whenever Iggy or Arya got too close to Mookie, he would simply make aggressive noises or take a quick step or two in their direction, and that was that.

So based on that, I tried an experiment just now where I let Kate and Sun out of their cage then Guro out of hers in my office / squirrel room. They were all out and about for about 20 minutes before it get dark and they went back to their cages. Kate and Sun are a bit over three months, so I figured they were no threat to Guro. And since they are more agile, I figured even in the worst case scenario that they would be able to get away from Guro. Anyways, there were no issues, and mostly they kept a safe distance apart. The room is about 10' x 22', so it is easy enough for them all to be out without getting too close. Guro made annoyed noises a few times to back them off, but this was minimal. They have been in adjoining cages for more than two months, and their respective sleeping areas are less than 2' apart. So they are pretty used to each other at this point.

[Tashahaven]

Great update!

The fact that they have spent such a long while, being so close to each other, yet not directly in “harms way”, and haven’t shown clear signs of aggression towards one another is a very positive sign. They clearly know one another’s scents, and aren’t expressing signs of aggression or discontent with each other.

You are being smart about it, and you may be fine, if you continue to do so. Being patient, observant and going slowly, and remaining prepared to intervene if needed. You may soon enough have a warm little ball of happy, sleeping foster siblings?

My positive thoughts and prayers are with you and all of them in the process! 🥰